On Bruised Reeds and Smoking Wicks

In our reading for today in Matthew 12, Jesus is locked into an unusually nasty debate with the Pharisees over a healing he does on the Sabbath. I say unusually nasty debate because after they lose, they decide to kill Jesus (12:14). Talk about your sore losers! Jesus withdraws, but he doesn’t exactly go low profile— He goes around healing the sick (12:15-16). Why does Jesus heal so many sick? Is he showing His power and identity as the Christ? Not this timed— he tells the people He heals to kept his identity quiet. No, Jesus often heals the sick out of compassion for the weak. That is Matthew’s point here, and he points us to a quotation from Isaiah 42 (Matthew 12:15-21)

Aware of this, Jesus withdrew from that place. Many followed him, and he healed all their sick, warning them not to tell who he was. This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah:
"Here is my servant whom I have chosen, the one I love, in whom I delight;
I will put my Spirit on him, and he will proclaim justice to the nations.
He will not quarrel or cry out; no one will hear his voice in the streets.
A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out, till he leads justice to victory.
In his name the nations will put their hope.”

The Messiah would not be a rabble-rouser in the streets who calls attention to Himself. He would rather be one who shows compassion to the broken and the weak. Matthew applies two metaphors from Isaiah to Jesus--

• “A bruised reed he will not break.” Reeds were bamboo-like plants that tall and straight enough to be used as measuring sticks and walking canes. But if one of the hollow canes became bruised or bent, then it was useless. The bruised reed here refers to weak people; Jesus was gentle in his dealings with the weak. He does not break bruised reeds.
  
  
• “A smoldering wick he will not snuff out.” Light in Bible times was provided by oil lamps, which were often little more than clay bowls filled with oil with a flax strip serving as the wick of this lamp. This kind of lamp wouldn’t hold a candle to lamps of today (sorry), but it did give off some light. If oil burned out of the bowl, the flax wick would begin to burn and smoke. It then had to be snuffed out and replaced. The Christ was gentle with broken people; rather than snuff out the smoking wick, He would endure the irritation and gently replenish the oil.

Early in the chapter, the Pharisees attacked Jesus’ disciples because they dared to pluck grain while walking through a field on the Sabbath. One doesn’t find picky technical violations like that unless one is constantly on the look for them, and the Pharisees were more than happy to point out the flaws to Jesus. They delighted in condemning the weaknesses of others… you know the type. Jesus the Messiah is tolerant of weak people. He doesn’t commend our flaws, but neither does He condemn us because of them. He came to seek and save the lost; weak and broken people are His specialty.

The church hasn’t always been so good at being gentle with weak and broken people. Someone has suggested that the church is the only army that shoots its wounded. That might be harsh; that also might be true. We need to be better at caring for the weak and broken among us because that is what Jesus did. Condemnation, gossip and accusation-- those were the specialties of the Pharisees.

Simple Faith

Pam and her husband Bob were serving as missionaries in the Philippines when she found out that she was pregnant. During the pregnancy, she contracted amoebic dysentery and became so sick that she was for a time in a coma. The drugs that were used to bring her out of a coma and to treat the dysentery were so powerful that they caused a placental abruption, a serious condition that causes developmental problems for the fetus and terminates many pregnancies. It can also be fatal to the mothers. After recovering from the dysentery, Pam’s doctors strongly urged her to have an abortion. Pam refused the abortion and trusted her baby to God. She gave birth to a normal, healthy, bouncing baby boy. Well, maybe not normal. Her son is Tim Tebow, probably the most physically dominating college quarterback the game has ever seen.

Having the abortion made sense to the doctors. They were playing the percentages and hedging their bets. Why carry a baby to term and even risk the life of the mother is you can just abort the fetus and start all over? For Pam and Bob Tebow, it wasn’t about percentages—it was about life and about God. Pam and her son Tim are scheduled to do a commercial during the Super Bowl to discuss her choice.

Faith doesn't make sense to the world. The world operates on the dual principles of science (what I see) and moral relativism (what I want). Faith drives us beyond either of those.
Sometimes faith is simply the decision to trust that God is there and will ultimately work in all things to bless those who trust Him… even when we can’t possibly understand how. That was the decision Pam Tebow made in bringing her baby to term. That is the decision that many believers are making in Haiti today in the face of unbelievably horrific suffering.

Some would see that kind of faith as childish. Maybe Jesus would agree! In our reading for today from Matthew 11:25-26, Jesus says

“I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this was your good pleasure.”

The most learned and wise in the Jewish community rejected Jesus and opposed his work. It was the simple who came to Him and were healed by Him. Sometimes faith is pretty simplistic—we decide that we will believe that God “exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him” (Heb 11:6). And we live that way, trusting God to make a difference in this life and the next.

Mercy and Sacrifice

Jesus spent so much time out eating that he developed a reputation for being something of a party guy (see Matt 11:29). Obviously, Jesus was neither a glutton nor a drunk—what got him into trouble wasn’t that he was “a glutton and a drunkard” but rather that he was “a friend of tax collectors and ‘sinners.’” And that what gets him in trouble in our text. Jesus calls Matthew as a disciple, and Matthew immediately has Jesus over for a meal with all his tax collector cronies.

The job that Matthew and his buddies had was to collect taxes from the merchants who brought goods to sell in the marketplace. These taxes went to Rome (as well as into Matthew’s pockets), and the cost of these taxes was passed onto the consumers (of course). The more taxes Matthew charged, the most items would cost people in the market. So Matthew and his buddies were not just seen as traitors to Rome; they were also the reason why things were so expensive at the local Wal-Mart!

Maybe we can understand why the Pharisees question Jesus’ choice of dinner companions. They were sinners responsible for driving up the cost of living and propping up the hated Roman occupation. Why would Jesus spend time with sinners? In a culture in which holy men maintained their holiness by avoiding the company of sinners, why would Jesus choose this of “sinners?” Jesus explains that he is the doctor and these are the very patients who need him. An old episode of MASH has Frank Burns going ballistic because Hawkeye is about to operate on a North Korean soldier. Burns says, “This man is the enemy!” Hawkeye says, “I’m going to operate for two reasons—this man is dying and I’m a doctor!” Jesus tells the Pharisees “I’m hanging out with these guys because they are sick and I’m the great Physician.”

But that’s not all he tells them. He also says, “Now go and learn the meaning of this Scripture: ‘I want you to show mercy, not offer sacrifices” (9:13, NLT). The Pharisees thought the whole point of their religion was religious ritual, and they were good at that. They were so good that they saw themselves as better than everyone else and more valuable to God. Jesus told them that they needed to learn mercy because that would change how they saw others. Micah long before had said that what the Lord requires is not sacrifices but “No, O people, the LORD has told you what is good, and this is what he requires of you: to do what is right, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God” (Mic 6:8, NET). The way we see other people indicates whether or not we are seeing God clearly.

How good are you are showing mercy? How good are you at seeing God?

A Seat at the Table

A friend once asked a group at a preacher’s meeting, “What is the hardest material in the New Testament for you to work through?” Most, of course, said “Revelation.” I said “Romans” largely because I was preaching through Romans at the time. He said that for him, it was the gospels because it is so hard to keep them in their two contexts. Actually, the gospels have several contexts.

• First, there was the life of and times Jesus as the story unfolds.
  
  
• Second, there is the life and times of the church 30 years or so later when the gospels were being written.
  
  
• Third, there is the life and times of the person who reads and applies the gospels.

We often what to skip the first two contexts and make an application to ourselves. We can miss the power of Jesus’ message if we fail to read it through the eyes of both the first hearers (Jesus’ audience) and the first readers ( the early church).

Take our reading for today from Matthew 8. After the Sermon on the Mount is completed, Jesus hits the ground running as His ministry ramps up into full gear. He goes all over the place healing the sick and showing the power of God. He cures lepers, casts our demons and dramatically shows His power over all manner of illness. And tucked in the middle of all this activity is the dramatic healing story of the servant of a Roman centurion (Matthew 8:5-13). The centurion asks for Jesus’ help and expresses faith that all Jesus must do is say the word and his servant will be healed. Jesus is astonished and says—

When Jesus heard this, he was astonished and said to those following him, “I tell you the truth, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith. I say to you that many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. But the subjects of the kingdom will be thrown outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” (Matthew 8:10-12)

This story may have not had much impact on people in Jesus' day. It didn't seem to take place in the middle of a mob, and the centurion refused Jesus offer to go to his house—so it is likely that few even knew about the incident as it happened. But what was the impact on the first century readers of Matthew? These were Jewish Christians in churches struggling to know what to do with Gentile believers. Here Jesus himself not only accepted a Gentile’s faith; Jesus suggests that he hadn’t come across such great faith among the Jews. He then suggests that this will be something of a pattern for the gospel—people will come from distant places to become part of the kingdom of heaven while those who thought they had a free pass would not. What a powerful message that God accepts all people who believe on his Son. What a powerful message this must have been for the Jewish church wondering whether to accept the Gentile believers among them… assuming they heard it.

And what a powerful message for us. Jesus accepts all people who believe in Him, even those who appear to be “separate and apart” from other “acceptable” believers. Christians tend to spend far too much time deciding on who is in and who is out of the kingdom of God. Churches once even voted on whether or not to accept people seeking membership among them. Members of my faith tribe have in the past been way too comfortable deciding that they are the only true citizens of the kingdom of God. Just like the Jews of Jesus’ day thought they were the only feasters at the table. Jesus wants us to know that only God makes that guest list and that all kinds of people from all kinds of places are getting their invitation. And the ones who THINK they are the most secure in their position are the very ones who will be left out! This Roman centurion put his faith in Jesus, and that’s that gets you a seat at the table.

The Prime Directive

I didn’t see the new Star Trek movie when it made its run in theaters. That is shocking given my fascination with all things Trek. I stood in line for 3 hours to make sure I was one of the first to see Star Trek: The Motion Picture when it came out in 1979. And I can say without (much) embarrassment that Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan is one of my favorite movies of all time. But, sigh, Lynn loathes anything science fiction, and I never got around to arranging to go with anyone else to see the Star Trek. I hope someone will take me to see Avatar before it ends its run in theaters. (Randy?)

In the Star Trek universe, the most sacred of all laws was called “The Prime Directive.” This law forbade any and all Federation interference with primitive, non-space travelling civilizations. Kirk and Picard were to boldly go where no one had gone before, but they could not interfere with the development of the beings with whom they made contact. And the plotline of many of the Star Trek episodes was Kirk or Picard bending the rules to find loopholes so they could save the Enterprise or one of its crew members without violating the Prime Directive.

Does God have a “Prime Directive” for disciples of Jesus that informs us how we are to deal with all other disciples and non-disciples? Maybe our reading from today from Matthew 7 gives us something of that prime directive. Of course, we don’t call it that; we call it “the Golden Rule.”

So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets (Matthew 7:12).

Jesus says that this one statement is “the essence of all that is taught in the law and the prophets” (NLT). Jesus tells us that our righteousness must exceed that of the Pharisees, and the Golden Rule is where that begins to happen. In his commentary on Matthew, France says—
The rule which follows presents in a nutshell the ‘greater righteousness’, the distinctive behavior and attitude expected of the disciple.

If we are going to live out the righteousness of God in our lives, then we will take serious this “simple rule-of-thumb guide” that demands that we ask of ourselves “what you want people to do for you, then grab the initiative and do it for them” (The Message). I wonder-- do we spend more time, like Kirk and Picard, trying to find someway around the force of our prime directive rather than looking for ways to live it out.

Getting Out of the Gunnysack

On March 22, 2006, Mary shot and killed her husband Matt. Everyone saw them as a normal and happy couple; everyone was totally shocked by the murder. Why did Mary kill her husband? She alleged that he was physically, sexually and emotionally abusive. They also struggled with constant financial difficulty. Ultimately only Mary knows why she killed her husband... and Matt is not around to tell his side of things.

How many other “perfect couples” are there like Matt and Mary? Families can look normal and happy on the surface but constantly struggle with bitterness and bickering behind closed doors. Statistics are pretty plain—if you are ever murdered, it will most likely be by someone that you love. Notice just a few statistics that I ran across on domestic violence—

• 33% of women have been abused; 30% know someone who has.
• 324,000 of women a year are abused while pregnant.
• Leading cause of death among pregnant women is homicide.
• 30-50% of all murdered women are killed by husband or ex.
• Domestic violence is a leading cause of ER visits in women.
• 50% of those who abuse a spouse also abuse their children.
• 4-10 million children will witness domestic violence this year.

We never know what people struggle with behind closed doors. You may be thinking, “But that is just people out there in the general culture and doesn’t apply to people who go to church.” Matthew Winkler was a Church of Christ preacher; his preacher-wife Mary was convicted of killing him. And no one knew that the couple had any problems. Psychologists sometimes use the term “gunnysacking” to describe the tendency we have of keeping our problems hidden from the in a metaphorical burlap bag that itself becomes an increasing burden to bear. Not only are there the problems with which we struggle, there is also burden of the need we feel to keep the problem hidden.

In our reading from Matthew 6, Jesus says, "Be careful not to do your ‘acts of righteousness’ before men, to be seen by them" (Matt 6:1). Saturday's reading covered two of those acts of righteousness (prayer and giving) and today's reading covers fasting. These "acts of righteousness" were ways that the hypocrites fooled people into believing that they were more spiritual than they really were. Hey, it's easier to pretend to be religious than it is to really do business with God.

It is also easier to fake people into thinking you have a great marriage and stable family than it is to have one. The problem is that the gunnysack we tie our troubles into always comes unraveled and those problems spill out and poison us further.

It's better to admit you are struggling than to pretend like your not. It is better to get help and find ways to heal than to pretend that you don't need to heal. It;s hard to admit that we need help, but we'll never get it until we do. "Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you." (1 Pet 5:6-7)

Fools, Idiots and Beyond

Language was something that was monitored pretty closely at my house when I was growing up. Not only would we never have thought of using a 4-letters word, we also were “encouraged” not to use words like “darn” or “gosh” because these were softened forms of curses. When I got really mad at someone, I’d might call them an “idiot.” Calling someone “stupid” was a greater offense that calling them an “idiot.” And the ultimate insult was to call someone a “stupid idiot.” I don’t remember getting in big trouble for those word choices, but I do remember one time when Mom jerked me up and threatened me with her feared flyswatter (what she used for spankings). Why? I called my sister a fool. “Idiot” would have gotten mild reprimand; “fool” put me in danger of a whuppin'. Why the difference?

Well, if you have done your New Testament reading for today, then you know the reason for the difference. Jesus said that to call your brother (or in my case, sister) a fool was to place you in danger of hellfire. “Stupid” and “idiot” and even “stupid-idiot” are one thing, but calling someone a “fool” can send you to hell. That was always curious to me, but I have never since called anyone a fool! Even people who I suspected were.

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus is calling us to a ethic that transcends rules and exceptions to the rules. He calls us to a morality that goes beyond that of the Pharisees, the experts in splitting hairs and finding loopholes. He says, “Unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matt 5:20). He then goes on to illustrate that ethic as He calls us to seek the heart and mind of God in doing what’s right and reflecting God glory in everything we do--

• Don’t just follow the rule of not killing someone; deal with the anger in your heart so that you will reflect the love of God.
  
  
• Don’t just follow the rule against adultery; deal with the lust in your heart so that you will reflect God’s purity.

It’s ironic that sometimes we read the Sermon on the Mount as if Jesus were giving us a new and different list of rules to follow. Jesus says “Don’t swear at all" so spend our time in Bible classes wondering if this means that we aren’t to take an oath in court. Jesus says, "Turn the other cheek" and we decide that we only have to do that once ands then we're out of cheeks.

It doesn’t matter whether you call someone a fool or an idiot. It’s not the specific word that Jesus has in mind, but the heart that gives voice to it. Listen to the “fool” passage in Matthew 5:22 in Petersen’s The Message translation--

“I’m telling you that anyone who is so much as angry with a brother or sister is guilty of murder. Carelessly call a brother ‘idiot!’ and you just might find yourself hauled into court. Thoughtlessly yell ‘stupid!’ at a sister and you are on the brink of hellfire.

This would have been terrible when I was a kid-- it takes stupid and idiot off the table too! So what are you going to call someone when you get really, really mad at someone? Well, it's the really, really mad part that is the whole point!

The First Temptation of Christ

I have mentioned Anne Rice’s novel Christ the Lord: the Road to Cana in a previous blog. The book is the second in a series of four historical novels on the life of Jesus told in the first person by Jesus Himself. Rice takes what we know about Jesus from the gospels and creates a fictional backstory that is both respectful and (usually) believable. The second novel centers on the fictional Avigail, a young woman who grows up in Nazareth… and who captures Jesus' heart. In the novel, Jesus wrestles with his desire to marry the woman he loves and raise a family. At the wedding feast of Cana, Jesus does more than just turn water into wine—he marries off Avigail and leaves with his disciples to walk the road that will lead to the cross. In the novel, Jesus handles the temptation in the wilderness (Matthew 4, our reading for today) with relative ease compared his struggle over Avigail.

The temptation story in Matthew 4 is told in a very straightforward and non-dramatic way. If Jesus pauses or struggles with His choices here, Matthew doesn’t tell us. Satan presents his temptations, which seems pretty innocuous compared to some of the things that Satan tempts us with (stones into bread?). Jesus quotes scripture, flatly refuses Satan’s offer and then finally shoos him away. It’s not very dramatic.

No? Matthew says Jesus “was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted.” The Lord’s Prayer teaches us to pray, “Lead us not into temptation…” But here Jesus is specifically led into the desert to be tested when he is greatly weakened by a 40-day fast. I read a little too fast this morning, and it first looked like Matthew had said “he was hungry. The temper came to him…” Actually he said “tempter” as in Satan, but temper might work. I’m not at my best when I’m hungry, and neither here is Jesus. And yet He resists the onslaught of what must have been Satan’s best shot.

This temptation story should sound a little familiar. Remember the first temptation in Genesis 3? Satan told Eve in the Garden of Eden that she should eat from the forbidden tree; he told Jesus in the wilderness that He should eat bread. Satan told Eve that she wouldn’t really die if she listened to him; Satan told Jesus that he wouldn’t die if he jumped off the Temple. He told Eve that she could become like God; He told Jesus He could rule over the world’s kingdoms. The temptations had to do with physical appetite, pride and power. We recognize those, right? Those are the ones Satan uses on us!

All of Satan’s temptations of Christ also had to do with Jesus’ identity. The first two actually begin with “If you are the Son of God…” Doesn’t that sound something like a taunt? Isn’t that the same thing Satan will say to Jesus on the cross through the Jewish leaders—“If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross” (Mt 27:40). Satan wants Jesus to either doubt who He is or to give in to Satan in an effort to prove who He is. But Jesus knew who He was, and that’s what allows him to overcome the temptation so powerfully. Jesus told Satan “No!” and Satan left Him.

Here’s a thought—maybe we would do better at resisting Satan’s temptations if we would at all times remember who we are!

Fruit of Repentance

“People went out to him from Jerusalem and all Judea and the whole region of the Jordan. Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River. But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to where he was baptizing, he said to them: “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? ” (Matthew 3:5–7, NIV)

I don’t intend to emulate the ministry strategy of John the Baptist. OK, maybe I could get a camel hair blazer, but the locust and wild honey thing isn't happening. (I just started WeightWatchers, and I have no idea how to calculate points for locusts anyway!) There was something powerful about John’s message; he didn't come charging in from the wilderness to the city like Old Testament prophets like Amos. No, people went from the cities into the wilderness to hear him preach. In fact, they flocked in droves. There was something powerful and magnetic about his message—John wasn’t just telling people what they wanted to hear. His basic message was, “Repent!” That’s never really what we want to hear, is it?

What struck me in our reading for today was John’s response to the Pharisees and Sadducees who also came out to the wilderness. John immediately condemned them as a brood of vipers? Why? Well, he was preaching a message of repentance and they needed to repent… and they weren’t there to repent. We need to understand that Pharisees and Sadducees seldom attended the same events—they were on opposite ends of Jewish culture. The Sadducees were theologically liberal and politically connected; the Pharisees were strict conservatives who stood apart (or above) from politics and culture. They did not get along, but they went along to see John. But when John saw them, he immediately attacked their hypocrisy and demanded they show fruits of repentance. Shocking? Not really—John had been demanding that everyone repent. The difference was they the religious leaders didn’t think they needed to repent.

The obvious question here is “Do were have more in common with the crowds who heard John, repented of their sins and were baptized by him or with the Pharisees and Sadducees who wrapped themselves in their own mantles of religiosity and tradition?” Are we really showing the fruits of repentance in our lives as we seek to change (that’s what “repent” means). Or do we point to our religiosity (going to church?) and righteousness (going to the right church?) as proving that we are already pretty good people already.

The message of John is summed up “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.” (Matthew 3:1). Matthew sums up the teaching of Jesus as “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.” (Matthew 4:17). The challenge we face as we read this is in remembering that they are talking to us!

Survivor: I-81

The “Survivor” finale was last night. I’m not talking about the TV show; I’m talking about real reality show “Survivor: I-81.” Angelynn, along with sidekicks Hannah Bean and Marley the dog, was among the thousands of travelers stranded on I-81 in western Virginia this weekend during the great blizzard of 2009. Her 17-hour trip home from Harding for the holidays turned into a 3 day ordeal right our of "Planes, Trains and Automobiles."

Angelynn left Searcy early on Friday morning, picked up Hannah and was planning to make it home late Friday night. Then the snow hit, I-81 was shut down and I found them a hotel (pet-friendly, of course) in Abingdon, VA. They left by 8:30 a.m. Saturday morning, and by 5:30 p.m. that afternoon, they had gotten only to Salem— stretching a 2-hour trip of 120 miles into an 8 hour ordeal punctuated by getting sideswiped by tractor-trailer driven by an idiot who tried to blame Angelynn. Fortunately, no one was hurt and the car remained drivable. Unfortunately, they were still a long way from home on an interstate that was again closing down.

Again, I was able to find them a (pet friendly) motel right on the interstate that had a vacancy, which was pretty amazing given the numbers of stranded travelers. Well, the reason there as a vacancy at this particular hotel was that it was on the top of a mountain that could not be climbed without 4-wheel drive. (It didn't say anything about the hotel's elevation on the internet). The Taurus, still whimpering from its run-in with the 18 wheeler, refused to climb the hill, so they had to park the car on the side of road and go mountain-climbing on foot.

Sunday morning, of course, the car was completely stuck in the snow, and they had to be rescued by some nice folks driving by. They finally got in last night… some 48 hours later than their original ETA. What an adventure! I’m very proud of Angelynn for enduring and prevailing during this very stressful ordeal. I guess we will all pay closer attention to the weather reports next time.

God's Guarantee

There’s an old story about the guy driving his 20 year old Rolls Royce in a whirlwind driving tour across Europe. (Disclaimer: This did not happen to me personally; I have never driven my Rolls across Europe). As he was winding through the mountains in Switzerland, a suspension spring broke on the car, leaving him stranded. He called the dealer in London who called the Rolls Royce factory. They immediately flew a technician to Switzerland and arranged for the Rolls owner to spend the night in a local 5-star hotel. The next day, the car was fixed and the man was on his way. The Rolls owner begins to wonder just how much all this star treatment is going to cost him. But months go by and he never gets a bill. He finally calls Rolls Royce and asks when they are going to bill him for the repaired suspension spring. He Rolls agent replied, “Sir, there must be some mistake; suspension springs never break on a Rolls Royce.”

Isn’t it great that a manufacturer would stand behind their product like that? Isn’t it sad that you have to buy a Rolls Royce to get that kind of support? In case you are wondering, a brand new Rolls Royce Phantom costs $380,000 to $450,000 depending on options. I guess if you want the map light, you gotta pay extra!

I just ordered new glasses on Tuesday. For the second time in less than a year, the fancy designer frames I bought at a national optometry store broke. (I refuse to name the store, though probably if you really focused “national optometry store” in the previous line, you might be able to figure it out). They broke in the exact same place and same way—the thick temple piece is actually attached to the hinge by a thin little wire about half as thick as a paper clip that is about as durable. Good news is that the glasses were under warranty. The bad news is that warranty means I could buy a new pair at 60% off retail. I did that once, This time the lenses had become discolored to the point they needed to be replaced to. The good news is that they were guaranteed too. Bad news was that again the guarantee was 60% their retail price. In other words, it was cheaper to go to the discount eyeglass place that opened down the street and buy all new glasses. That's what I did. My warranty guaranteed that I could buy the same defective glasses for 10% MORE than a whole new pair somewhere else. Some guarantee!

God gives us a guarantee that is a real guarantee—He gives us the guarantee of Himself. This time of year, the reminders of God’s sojourn in flesh and blood are all around us. We see tiny porcelain babies and mangers on tables and giant plastic ones in front yards. They remind us of the truth that God became flesh and lived among us as one of us. John puts it this way—

He came into the very world he created, but the world didn’t recognize him. He came to his own people, and even they rejected him. But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God. They are reborn—not with a physical birth resulting from human passion or plan, but a birth that comes from God.” (John 1:10–13, NLT)

The one who created the world of flesh became part of that world so that we might be reborn of something beyond the flesh. The baby born in Bethlehem was the Son of God, and He gives us the opportunity to be reborn as the children of God. And not only did God gives us the gift of Himself in Jesus, He also gives us the gift of His Spirit. This is the guarantee—

“Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.” (2 Corinthians 1:21–22, TNIV)

The God who came to earth to live among us also comes into our hearts to live in us. He gives us the guarantee of Himself. The word “guarantee” in the NIV/ESV or “pledge” in the NASB is the Greek word arrabōn. It represented a partial down-payment that guarantees a full payment in the future. God has given us Himself in part to guarantee that one day we will have Him in full. That sounds like a guarantee we can live with… and can’t live without!

Jesus Is the Reason...Period

Well, I think we are just about ready for Christmas. All the gifts are bought and boxed and… (oops, I was supposed to mail them yesterday!). Well, the decorations have all been put up… two strands of lights outside and a scrawny Wal-Mart tree inside. Angelynn gets home Friday; she’s the one who usually puts us all up the decorations, so she can take over. But maybe not so much this year-- Marley (her 100 lb German shepherd) probably would eat the decorations… and maybe even the tree! At any rate, I think we’re ready for Christmas. I am glad that this season of the year only comes once a year.

That is one of the problems with our traditional observance of Christmas. It is so seasonal. Most of the things we do during this time of the year we only do during this time of the year. It’s hard to get a good cup of eggnog and a decent slide of fruit cake in July. No one puts up fresh cut or fake trees in their house in March. And we seldom sing carols praising God for the birth of His Son in August. And if I preached a sermon series on the birth of Christ in October, that would seem a bit strange ("Why didn't he wait a couple of months...") . For many, the birth of Jesus and the meaning of His journey to our world is inexorably tied to this one season of the year.

I remember a conversation I had with my Mom around Mother’s Day. I remember it because we had it several times when I was a kid. I’d ask her what she wanted for Mother’s Day. And she would say, “Don’t get me anything; you just be a good little boy.” I hated that! I didn’t WANT to be a good boy; I wanted to buy her a present and be done with it! It’s a lot easier to buy some flowers or a card. Being good all the time is too hard!

The problem with the “True Meaning of Christmas” or the “Christmas Spirit” is that it seems OK to ignore them the rest of the year. Go to church, sing some carols, give some gifts, donate to charity, do some good deeds… and we’re done with Jesus for another year. If Christmas is special at all, then it must be special all the time. If Jesus really was Immanuel, God with us, then He is so all year around. If the baby in the manger really was God made flesh, then that changes everything. If it means anything, then it means everything. And the one thing we can’t do is give Him one day (or 12 days) a year.

Paul talks about the coming of Jesus into the flesh in Philippians— “Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. ” (Philippians 2:6–7). But he says this to make a point. Pointing the Philippians of what we might today call “The Christmas Story” reminds them of the hold Jesus has on their lives and the responsibility they have to have His attitude in the way they treat one another—

“then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. ” (Philippians 2:2–4, NIV)

If the babe of Bethlehem really was God in the flesh, then that fact changes more than the holiday season. It changes everything about everything. Jesus isn’t the reason for the season—He is the reason. Period.

How Adultery Is Like Cheating on Taxes

The newspaper I read every morning is Google News. OK, I’m lazy, I admit it. I could read the New York Times or Wall Street Journal from cover to cover (wait a minute, newspapers don’t have covers). But I figure that if anything has happened in the world overnight that I need to know about, it will be on Google News in the morning. It takes 5 minutes to scan down all the headlines in all the sections, and then you have a pretty good idea of “That’s the way it is…” Google breaks down the news into sections (Top Stories, US News, World News, Sports, etc.) which you can edit and rearrange. The problem is that the same stories can show up over several of the sections, so sometimes all the news seems familiar.

And the story that has been dominated Google News lately has been the woes of Tiger Woods. This story is covered in just about all the sections—Top Stories, US News, Sports (those all make sense). But there are stories in Health News (stress-related health issue brought on by extramarital affairs), Business News (impact on Tiger’s endorsement deals) and even Sci-Tech (cell phones and extramarital affairs). It’s been all Tiger all the time. It’s all so sad.

How common is infidelity? It depends on who you talk to. According to a survey done by the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago, about 25% of men and 17% of women have had extramarital affairs. But several other surveys put the statistics much higher (55% of men and 45% of women). What seems clear is that most marriages (between 65% and 75%) don’t survive the affair. No matter how “enlightened” our time, there is still nothing that destroys a marriage faster than marital infidelity.

I ran across an interesting statistic on the Pew Research Center website. The article is entitled “A Barometer of Modern Morals.” It reports on a study that covered wide range of moral questions and issues that was designed to give a picture of the moral climate in America. The most offensive immoral behavior was marital infidelity (88% believed that was morally offensive). The least offensive behavior was overeating (only 32% saw that as wrong). What caught my eye was what was the second most offensive immoral behavior according to the list—“not reporting all income on your taxes.” A whopping 79% of us believe that is morally offensive, more so than using alcohol excessively (61%), having an abortion (52%) or homosexual activity (50%). On the survey, about the same number of people thought adultery and under-reporting income on your taxes was morally wrong.

So how many people fudge on their taxes? Do you really think only 21% ever fudge on their taxes? We’ve had members do work for the church that wanted to be paid “under the table.” Is the average American really such a stickler about taxes that they see it as being just as immoral as adultery? And maybe that is the problem—we see tax evasion as morally wrong in the abstract, but can turn a blind eye when it occurs to us. After all, a few bucks here or there is really not so big a deal. And maybe that’s why almost everyone believes adultery is wrong but one-fourth to one-half of us are doing it anyway! Morality isn’t very useful if we go ahead and do what we think is wrong!

Solomon gives some very wise and poetic advice in Proverbs 5:15-20. I realize this is poetry, and most of us don’t do poetry, but read this very carefully and you might get the impression that Solomon isn't really be talking about cisterns here--

15 Drink water from your own cistern, running water from your own well.
16 Should your springs overflow in the streets, your streams of water in the public squares?
17 Let them be yours alone, never to be shared with strangers.
18 May your fountain be blessed, and may you rejoice in the wife of your youth.
19 A loving doe, a graceful deer—may her breasts satisfy you always,
may you ever be captivated by her love.
20 Why be captivated, my son, by an adulteress? Why embrace the bosom of another man’s wife?

Maybe it’s the next verse that should get our attention when we want to entertain a gap between our moral beliefs and our behavior, “For a man’s ways are in full view of the LORD, and he examines all his paths.” (Proverbs 5:21)

When Fisherman Don't Fish

In his book In The Eye of the Storm, Max Lucado tells this great story about an ill-fated fishing trip he took as a kid with his Dad and his best friend Mark. They set up camp and were looking forward to some great fishing when a cold front came through and as a drizzling, very cold rain. They spend the day playing Monopoly and reading the Reader’s Digest...but things go downhill from there.

The hours passed slowly but they did pass. Night finally came, and we crawled into the sleeping bags dreaming of angling. Were we in for a surprise. The next morning it wasn't the wind that made the door hard to open, it was the ice!

We tried to be cheerful. "No problem," we mumbled. "We can play Monopoly… again. We can reread Reader's Digest and surely we know another joke or two." But as courageous as we tried to be, it was obvious that some of the gray had left the sky and entered our camper.

I began to notice a few things I hadn't seen before. I noticed that Mark had a few personality flaws. He was a bit too cocky about his opinions. He was easily irritated and constantly edgy. He couldn't take any constructive criticism. Even though his socks did stink, he didn't think it was my business to tell him. It was a long day. It was a long, cold night.

When we awoke the next morning to the sound of sleet slapping the canvas, we didn't even pretend to be cheerful. We were flat-out grumpy. Mark became more of a jerk with each passing moment. Dad couldn't do anything right; I wondered how someone so irritable could have such an even-tempered son. We sat in misery the whole day, our fishing equipment still unpacked. The next day was even colder. "We're going home" were my father's first words. No one objected. I learned a hard lesson that week. Not about fishing, but about people. When those who are called to fish don't fish, they fight.

When fishermen don’t fish, they fight! When the church stops looking up (to worship God) and out (to serve and teach others), we start looking inward at ourselves. And when that happens, we start fussing and fighting over issues that aren't really issues. When we were clearly focused on the cross and on reaching out to point others to the cross and to serve others in the name of the cross, then peripheral issues will stay on the periphery. It is during times of peace when soldiers get into fistfights in the barracks; in the middle of a war, you are too focused on the enemy. When fisherman don’t fish, they fight. Maybe we need to get busy fishing.

Back to the Blog

I've been a very bad blogger recently. Not only have I not written anything in a couple of weeks-- I haven't even thought to write anything. I felt really, really bad about this unintended break until I suddenly remembered that no one really reads it anyway! Sigh.

Here's my excuse-- all my spare blogging time has been taken up tinkering my recent upgrade to Windows 7 (from XP). On both my computers. If it wasn't enough to relearn the entire operating system, I also upgraded to MS Office 2010 beta (from Office 2003). That means that everything I do and have to relearn how to do it.

Oh, I also bought a car. I sold my old one for scrap. With a bad engine (the Chrysler 2.7 in it was evidently a bad engine even before it blew up), no AC and a shaky transmission, there was no real idea of repair. It left a good looking corpse though. And the radio still works. If anyone wants to say good-bye to the old Intrepid, it's still sitting down at Leggett and Jones waiting for the car crusher to put it out of its memory.

My new car isn't new... and it isn't really mine yet. But the credit union tells me that I have excellent credit (I felt good about that until I realized that what you do to get good credit is borrow money... that and repay it). So sometime in the next several days I'll take possession of my 2007 Honda CRV. Or is it CR-V? Or C-RV?

The last time I bought a car or changed operating systems was in 2000. So now that's behind me, I should be good to go for another decade. Bck to the blog.

Prosperity Gospel Without the Prosperity?

There is an interesting article in by Hanna Rosin this month’s The Atlantic entitled “Did Christianity Cause the Crash?” Rosin makes an interesting connection (although largely anecdotal) between the rise of the so-called “Prosperity Gospel” (or “Health and Wealth Theology” or “Word of Faith Movement”) and the mortgage collapse that led to the present economic crisis. Many of those taught by their church that faithfulness means that God expects them to have the trappings of wealth were over-optimistic in their use of credit. Rosin suggests that many of the sub-prime mortgages responsible for this present financial darkness were directly marketed to Prosperity Gospel church members through their ministers and pulpits. God wants you to have houses, and here is a way to have one now.

Did the Prosperity Gospel really contribute of the bursting of the mortgage bubble? Read the article and tell me what you think. But it does stand to reason that people take greater financial risks if they really believe that faith guarantees that God will bless all their financial endeavors and enlarge all their financial territory (to use Jabezian language). Paul’s words like “Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another” (Rom 13:8) and “I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation” (Phil 4:12) are lost pretty quickly if you believe that God wants you to have the biggest house and the best car in the neighborhood because somehow that gives glory to Him. Early disciples like Peter and his partners gave up everything to follow Jesus (Mk 10:28) and died penniless in prison as martyrs. Jesus himself had nothing and warned that those who follow him might not do much better (Matt 8:20). How does that fit into the American Dream?

It will be worse than irony if the world comes to sees the church as leading the cultural charge into financial ruin rather than being a help to the poor who are hurt by it!

Theology from Calvin (and Hobbes)

Years ago, I was driving to a Memorial Day softball tournament at camp. I was all ready for the big day— I had had my lucky glove, my lucky cleats and was wearing my lucky sweats (I had to rely a lot on luck). What I didn’t have was my wallet! It was Memorial Day, and the police were doing random traffic stops and I randomly found one. So there I was, in a long line of traffic inching toward judgment waiting to show the state troopers the driver’s license I didn’t have.

Well, maybe my lucky glove was luckier off the field than it was on the field. There were two troopers doing the traffic stop. And I pulled up, Trooper #1 waved me to go on to Trooper #2, who must have thought Trooper #1 was finished with me, so we waved me on through the stop. Either I was really lucky or God didn't want me to pay a fine... or we have really lousy troopers.

So I was completely guilty, and yet I was treated as if I were completely innocent. Not a bad metaphor for grace, really. Grace is the basic message of the gospel. Over and over, the Bible tells us that God through Christ has saved us by his mercy, “not because of righteous things we had done” (Titus 3:5). We are saved by grace through faith to do good works (Eph 2:8-10). Paul warns us that salvation is “not by works, so that no one can boast.” It is important that we get grace straight, because if we think that we are good enough in ourselves, then we will boast.

But we do boast, don't we? One of the characteristics of many who are saved by grace is that they seem to have a lot of trouble extending that grace to others. I am saved by grace, but your life or theology is such a wreck that even grace can't help you. It is almost as if we want the grace community to consist only of us and those who are like us. I remember an old Calvin and Hobbs cartoon where the two are discussing the nature of the universe

Calvin: "You know what the problem is with the universe?” There’s no toll-free customer hot line for complaints! That’s why things don’t get fixed. If the Universe had any decent management, we’d get a full refund if we weren’t completely satisfied."

Hobbes: "But hey, the universe is free."

Calvin: "They should be a cover charge to keep out all the riffraff."

You see, we don’t want grace to be too free … or else all the riffraff will get in! Church folks can be a pretty judgmental lot (not at Denbigh, of course, but at other places). In fact, church can be a downright dangerous place for those who struggle with sin, with their past, with imperfect theology, with addictions… with life. I remember having a discussion with a brother who had a very, very (very) narrow view of divorce and divorced people. He told me (with steam coming out of his ears), “If we don’t get this right, then the church will end up being full of sinners!” Well, the church has always been full of sinners! And we will never get it right enough to change that.

Think about it... If moral or theological perfection is the church’s cover charge that keeps out all the riffraff, then we ALL will find ourselves on the outside looking in… with all the other riffraff.

I Mean Seriously...

Remind me one more time-- why is it that that so many people today have such a hard taking Christianity seriously?

A Tale Told By an Idiot?

Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.

Nothing like a little Shakespeare to brighten up your day, right? Of course, it is a little dangerous to title a blog “a tale told by an idiot.” The idiot, in this case, is not me but Macbeth, who just doesn’t have a very rosy outlook. Life has no meaning, no purpose. It’s all just a bunch of noise until its time to be quiet. Unfortunately, a lot of people seem to live like life is just “a tale told by an idiot…signifying nothing.”

Take Larry Walters as an example. Larry made history in 1982 when he fastened 42 surplus weather balloons to a lawn chair and launched himself skyward. He carried a CB radio and a BB gun to shoot the balloons when it was time to descend. It may be a surprise, but Larry didn’t think this plan through very well. He reached altitudes of 16,000 feet before he started to descend, and was spotted by pilots from both TWA and Delta Airlines. After getting the ride of his life, Larry landed in a residential neighborhood in Long Beach, got tangled in power lines, and caused a power blackout. Unfortunately for Larry, this literally was the ride of his life. Several years later, he decided Macbeth was right, and Larry shot himself to death. He had enough of the thrills and adventure, and there was nothing else except the sound and fury that meant nothing.

Life is supposed to have meaning, right? It is supposed to signify something. Sometimes we live like our purpose is just to get through the day—either trying to hold on while we get all the stuff done that we have to get done or maybe just finding enough stuff to do to fill up the day. Surely there is something more to life than just getting through the day. Carl Jung, the famous psychiatrist, was once asked what was the meaning of life; his answer was, “I don’t know the meaning of life but it looks as if something were meant by it.” Surely there is something more to life than just “a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.”

For the Christian, there is much more to life than just getting through it. There is purpose and meaning to life because we have been given purpose and meaning by God. Paul wrote--

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. 29 For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. (Romans 8:28-29)

We have been called according to God’s purpose. We were made in his image and are called to be conformed to the likeness of his Son. We are to live in relationship to him and are to live like him. What a high and holy purpose that is—that signifies a lot. May we not get so busy with the details of life today that we forget that we have been given a purpose for today and everyday!

Whose List?

Forbes Magazine releases a list each year of the wealthiest people in the world. They also have another list of the wealthiest celebrities. Well, they released another list last week—the highest earning dead celebrities. Evidently the earning power of some doesn’t end when they die. You’ve probably seen dead stars like John Wayne, Fred Astaire and most recently Chris Farley doing TV commercials through the magic of computer animation. Well, even dead stars don’t work for free, so the Forbes people (who obviously don’t have enough to do) compiled a list of which dead celebrities makes the most.

Surprisingly enough, it wasn’t either Michael Jackson nor Elvis Presley, though they do rank 3rd and 4th on the list. The top dead breadwinner is French fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent who pulled in a cool $350 million. Number 2 on the list is the team of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein who made $235 million between them. There is even a term that has been coined to describe dead celebrities-- "delebs."

I wonder if Michael Jackson wants to lodge a complaint because obviously Rogers and Hammerstein are two delebs, not one, and are there unfairly listed in the #2 spot. Or is Elvis thinking, “If I would have just gotten my cut from those velvet paintings those guys sell on the side of the road, I could have been #1… thank you, thank you very much.” Do you think J.R.R. Tolkien, Charles Schulz, John Lennon, Theodor Geisel, Albert Einstein or Michael Crichton (rounding out the top ten) care very much about this list? Oh, the heirs who have control over their delebs’ estates care very much. Maybe what the delebs might care about is what Ecclesiastes 2:18,19 says—

I hated all the things I had toiled for under the sun, because I must leave them to the one who comes after me. And who knows whether he will be a wise man or a fool? Yet he will have control over all the work into which I have poured my effort and skill under the sun. This too is meaningless.

We know the old saying—you can’t take it with you. To paraphrase the old bumper stick popular in the 80’s, “The one who dies with the most toys—is dead.” Once we are dead, nothing of the things that we treat as so important now will matter. Money, possessions, status, intelligence, beauty, athleticism, accomplishments—once you are dead, they don’t matter at all. Part of the meaninglessness with which Ecclesiastes struggles is how the grave makes everything not matter, “The fate of the fool will overtake me also. What then do I gain by being wise?” (Eccl 2:15).

At the heart of the Christian faith is the certainty that some things do survive the grave. There is coming a time when Jesus’ victory over the tomb will become our victory. Those who trust in Him will live forever, and the good deeds we do now are sent ahead of them as an eternal treasure (see 1 Tim 6:17-19). Maybe it would be wise to spend more time on things that last and less time on things you must leave behind?